I think we undervalue hard work as a leadership
quality. Understandable since it's not glamorous like courage and
doesn't pull on the heartstrings like kindness. Never the
less, the ability to get things done and push harder than anyone else is vital
if you're going to succeed at anything. The most important business lesson my father
taught me is to never underestimate the power of hard work. I'm actually pretty
old school when it comes to leadership, which you can probably tell from
reading my articles.

All the technology and clever strategies in
the world can't help you if you're lazy and don't show up. ~ Narges Nirumvala

Watching my Father has taught me so
much. On a personal note when I
first met my husband (many years ago now!) I remember a common value we shared
was a strong work ethic. We would share stories of the long hours and
sacrifices our immigrant parents made to provide for us. It's something
that draws us together even now and a value we live everyday. So I thought we
could examine hard work in more detail and give it the focus it so rightly deserves:

1. Show Up.

Showing up is about being visible and taking
action. Not just thinking about it and planning it, but actually doing
it. It's about execution and about doing what you need
to do rather than what you want to do. So even if
you're exhausted with a bad cold, you dress up, you show up and you give it
your best effort.

I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you
want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often. ~ Brian
Tracy

2. Don't Make Excuses.

We all have people we work with who make
excuses rather than taking action. They are infuriating to work with, don't
pull their weight and and rarely get anything done. They rely on other people to do the
work for them, 'fake' competence and coast through life. Eventually it will
catch up to them. People like
that drive me crazy. They are toxic to teams and need to be mentored to improve
or weeded out.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good
for anything else. ~ Benjamin Franklin

3. Make Priorities and Stick to Them.

How many times have you said "I'm sorry
I can't do that I'm just too busy". I've said it too. The truth is we are
rarely too busy, we just don't want to do it. It's not a priority to us. When something is a priority you make the
time to do it.Because let's face it, we're all busy.Don't hide behind the 'I'm too busy' mask, if
something isn't a priority then delegate it or let it go.

4. Put In The Hours.

There's something inspiring about people who
put in the hours to get work done. All the superstar entrepreneurs and amazing
leaders I know share this ability. They are driven by passion, work hard and are proud
of it.In an era of balance I know it seems contrary to
praise hard work, but I think it's important to know when to plow through your
work full steam ahead and when to take a break. Some tasks
and projects take more time and effort.

Leaders aren't born they are made. And they are
made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll
have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. ~ Vince Lombardi

5. Honour Your Word and Do Your Best.

I'm a huge fan of the book 'The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal
Freedom' by Don
Miguel Ruiz. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it. Both these
points are from his book, which is why I put them together. Of the four
principles he shares in his book these are the two that resonate with me the
most. Being able to honour your word and always doing your best sound like the
kind of advice a Father would give don't they?

My Dad epitomizes these two qualities. I've really
taken them to heart and tried to make them part of my everyday life.

Great leaders are committed to everydayexcellence. They put 100% into every task for
ultimate success. ~ Narges Nirumvala

One final point, every June I review my
'optional' activities, such as volunteer Boards and Committees and 'let
go' of the ones that just aren't working for me anymore. I have to admit I always feel guilty when I do it. I stepped
away from a board position just the other day (which is not on my LinkedIn
profile in case you were wondering) and within 24-hours I had a
possibility of another board position. Sometimes you have close a door for the
Universe to open a window. Do you agree or disagree with me? What's your
opinion on the importance of hard work in leadership? Leave your feedback in
the comments below!

Although it
may be tempting to dismiss a call to happiness during this time of worldwide
struggle and strife as overly optimistic or too simplistic, let me tell you now
that I believe this is the perfect time for a reminder that when it comes to
happiness, all of us have a choice.

In fact, choosing to be happy is one of
the very few essential decisions that we get to keep regardless of age, stage
of life, or present situation. It’s a decision that can’t be taken away, and no
one else can make it for you.

Each one of us gets to choose, every
single moment of every day, whether or not we decide to be happy.

It Pays to Be Happy

When we choose to be happy, the rewards
are truly great. First and foremost, happy people are more likable and
desirable to be around. Isn’t it amazing how we’re drawn to people with sunny
dispositions? One of the many consequences of this phenomenon of human nature
is that happy people regularly benefit from the enthusiastic help and
cooperation of others.

Secondly, happy people consistently
report an improved quality of life. They enjoy life and everything in it more
than people who aren’t happy.

I can personally attest to the
connection between happiness and improved quality of life. Many years ago, I
decided that I would be intentional about choosing to be happy. I didn’t just
say I wanted to be happy, I found out what I needed to do to make happiness a daily
reality for me.

Nine Choices Happy People Make

In their book, How We Choose to Be Happy: The
9 Choices of Extremely Happy People, authors Rick Foster and Greg
Hicks present the results of interviews with happy people all over the world,
from all walks of life. They found and wrote about nine specific choices
commonly made by happy people. As you can see, most of these are things we
already know about, and may even already practice.

The key is to use your personal
initiative to do the little things that are easy to do, and do them
consistently. Here’s the list of choices that Foster and Hicks came up with:

1. Intend to Be Happy. This is the fully conscious decision to
choose happiness over unhappiness.

2. Be
Accountable. You
make the choice to assume full personal responsibility for your actions,
thoughts and feelings, as well as to refuse to blame others for your own
unhappiness. It is also the practice of seeing ourselves as having control over
our own lives, rather than being at the receiving end of circumstances.

3. Discover Your Needs. This is the ongoing process of
identifying for ourselves what makes us truly happy.

4. Centralize
Your Goals. Creating
a dream list is the happy person’s non-negotiable insistence on making that
which creates happiness a central activity in life.

5. Turn Problems into Opportunities. Recasting is to change the form
of something. Look at experiences in positive ways and change your
problems into challenges.

6. Explore Options. Make the decision to approach life by
being open to any new possibilities and take a flexible approach to life’s
journey.

7. Express Appreciation. Communicating gratitude and giving
thanks to the people around you daily brings happiness8. Share
Unselfishly. The art of giving is the act of sharing one’s
self with friends, community and the world at large without the expectation of
a ‘return on investment.’

9. Be Truthful at All Times. Make a contract with yourself
and design a means by which to check your thoughts and actions against your own
internal, personal code. For more thoughts on the value of truthfulness.

Though I’m fortunate that I have
experienced a rewarding career and professional life, it’s not my achievements
that are to be credited for my happiness and the outstanding quality of life I
now enjoy. Rather, it’s the little decisions I consistently make each day—just
like these—that continue to help me in my choice to be happy.

If you’ve never considered happiness as
a choice before now, let me say again that I don’t think there has ever been a
better time than now to begin choosing happiness. Will you commit to being
intentional about making one of the choices listed above each day for the next
nine days? I hope you will.

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything
is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.”